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Sunday, March 24, 2013

Crop of food
experts have commenced work on the biggest study of food allergy in the world,
worth about Euro 15.1 million as the research takes off with sponsorship by the
European Commission.

NaijaAgroNet
recalls that the world's biggest ever study on allergies;spearheaded by the
University of Manchester.

The €9million
project builds on an earlier €14.3 million research study and will involve the
world’s leading experts in the UK, Europe, Australia and US. Together they mark
the biggest study of food allergy in the world.

Up to 20
million European citizens suffer from food allergy. However management of both
food allergy, by patients and health practitioners, and allergens, by industry,
is thwarted by lack of evidence to either prevent food allergy developing or
protect adequately those who are already allergic.

The EC-sponsored
research, known as the Integrated Approaches to Food Allergen and Allergy Risk
Management (iFAAM), will produce a standardised management process for
companies involved in food manufacturing. It will also develop tools designed
to enforce these regulations and produce evidence-based knowledge to inform new
health advice on nutrition for pregnant women, babies and allergy sufferers.

The
Manchester team will work with 38 partners including, industrial stakeholders represented
by Unilever and Eurofins, patient groups representing people at risk of severe
allergic reactions from Germany, UK and Ireland and a risk manager and assessor
group including the UK Food Standards Agency.

The project,
Media Relations Officer, Faculty of Medical and Human Sciences The University of
Manchester, Alison Barbuti, said will work loosely with the clinical community,
working in collaboration with the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical
Immunology.

Professor
Clare Mills, from the Allergy and Respiratory Centre of The University of
Manchester's Institute of Inflammation and Repair and based in the Manchester Institute
of Biotechnology, will head the study.

"This
is a massive research project which will have far reaching consequences for
consumers and food producers. The evidence base and tools that result from this
will support more transparent precautionary “may contain” labelling of
allergens in foods which will make life easier for allergy sufferers as they
try to avoid problem foods.”

Nikolaos
Papadopoulos, Head of Allergy Department, University of Athens and President
Elect EAACI, said "Food Allergy is a disease that can be conquered, if
critical steps are taken. iFAAM sets the stage for facilitating such steps to
be taken."

Dr Bert
Popping, Eurofins Scientific Director, said: “Eurofins is excited to be part of
this European Commission project. We are looking forward to sharing our
newly-developed multiple allergen detection method and making a meaningful
contribution to this crucial initiative.”

Sue
Hattersley, Head of the UK Food Standard’s Agency’s Allergy Branch said: “We
welcome the launch of the iFAAM, which the FSA will be supporting through some
of our own current research projects. We anticipate that the information
learned through iFAAM will help determine a more consistent approach to
providing consumers with information, so they can make safe choices about the
food they eat.

Furthermore it has the potential to provide a much greater
insight into the development of food allergies – and, from an industry and
regulatory perspective, more guidance and a big impact on the management of
allergens in food manufacturing and production.”

The city of London would play host to researchers from around the world for
two days to discuss issues over conservation and land grabs.The conference holding at London Zoo on 26-27 March, would afford land
researchers to join the dots between large land deals, conservation, land
rights and efforts to tackle poverty in poor communities worldwide. Also, speakers would present research on both impacts of land grabs on
conservation and its reverse, as well as the role of conservation as a driver
of land grabs.Dilys Roe, a senior researcher at the International Institute for Environment
and Development (IIED) says, “They will also share studies that show how
stronger land rights can improve conservation outcomes.”The issues, Roe said, are burning because worldwide large land deals are on
the increase, and they often take place in areas that are home to both large
numbers of poor people and important biodiversity. People and wildlife can lose
out when investors acquire land for large scale agriculture.At the same time, there are growing threats from ‘green grabs’ that displace
communities in order to conserve wildlife or gain value from eco-tourism,
biofuels or the carbon that forests store in their wood.The meeting is jointly hosted byIIED, the International Land
Coalition, the
Zoological Society of London
andMaliasili Initiatives; the international symposium of the Poverty and
Conservation Learning Group. While speakers will present case
studies from Cameroon, Uganda, Chile, Kenya, Mongolia, India, Indonesia, the
Philippines, Ethiopia, Liberia and Cambodia.

The two-day meeting scheduled for African Union Conference
Centre, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, NaijaAgroNet
gathered would hold between Monday 25 and Tuesday 26, 2013, with the theme
“Sustaining the CAADP Momentum - from Decisions and Commitments to
Implementation for Results and Impact.”

The continental annual forum which brings together
stakeholders in African agriculture, would be graced by President of Benin, H.E
Boni Yayi, Prime Minister of Ethiopia, H.E Hailemariam Desalegn and AUC
Chairperson, H.E Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.

Also expected in attendance would be High level African
Leadership, Regional Economic Communities, government ministries, farmers’
organizations, the private sector, civil society, development partners, donor
communities, the African Union Commission, and the New Partnership for Africa’s
Development stakeholders involved in agricultural development.

NaijaAgroNet
recollects that the CAADP PP is a programme that facilitates practitioners, especially
country level players and other stakeholders to share and learn lessons.

In addition, the 9th CAADP PP would build on the discussions
and outcomes of the 8th CAADP PP but with more focused attention on implementation,
results and impact.

This year’s theme NaijaAgroNet
learnt is within the broader CAADP framework of eliminating hunger, job
creation and reducing poverty through agriculture.

The theme on “Sustaining the CAADP momentum” according to
the organizers, is aimed directly at renewing the thrust of CAADP by providing
a clearer perspective and the overall role of agriculture in the economic
transformation of the continent.

It will particularly aim to examine achievements
and successes during the past 10 years of CAADP in order to achieve CAADP
objectives. The 9th CAADP PP will take into accountthe creation of a platform for “CAADP at 10”,
which will provide an opportunity to reflect on drawbacks in order to impress a
new thinking and visioning on how to transition the CAADP agenda into the next
decade.

Monday, March 11, 2013

As the three-day meeting of the Board of the Green
Climate Fund (GCF) takes off in Berlin, Germany, today, how to finance
innovative solutions tops the agenda at the third session of GCF.

NaijaAgroNet
gathered that the meeting would last between March Tuesday 12 and Friday 15,
2013. Noting that the Green Climate Fund was established by the United Nations Climate
Change Convention to channel support to the developing world to address climate
change.

Also gathered by NaijaAgroNet
was that the Green Climate Fund is expected to be one of a range of funding
channels to deliver on the long-term goal to mobilize US$ 100 billion, about N158,249 billion per annum in climate finance by 2020
from a range of sources, both public and private.

According to a Press Advisory, the Fund’s board, equally
composed of representatives of developed and developing countries, is currently
in its start-up phase and is focusing its work on establishing the systems and policies
to manage financial flows in order to have a global impact on climate change.

Co-chair of Green Climate Fund Board, Zaheer Fakir, said they need to put systems
in place, robust enough to handle a significant flow of climate funding and
flexible enough to ensure that these funds are spent effectively on adaptation
and mitigation throughout the developing world.

‘The challenge is to get the Fund up and running as soon as
possible with the institutional
structures, policies, and safeguards to target funding based on country owned strategies,” he said.

Equally speaking, the Co-Chair of GCF, Mr. Ewen McDonald, pointed out that
the impact of climate change in developing countries could limit or even
reverse their growth.

“The Fund needs to be innovative to help
developing countries undertake action to move their economies onto
climate-resilient and low-emission development pathways. A key part of this
will be the Fund’s ability to leverage significant funding from both public and
private sources. Discussions in Berlin around the design of the Private Sector Facility
will be critical in this regard.” McDonald said.

Alongside discussions on a business model framework, the three-day Board
meeting is also expected to advance the plans to establish the Fund within its
host city of Songdo, Incheon City, Republic of Korea, as well as adopting
additional rules of procedure for the Board, and begin discussing how best to
mobilize resources for the Fund.

Monday, March 4, 2013

The Nigerian Minister of Agriculture
and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, would today
address the 30th
Brussels Development Briefings in Belgium, NaijaAgroNet
can authoritatively reveal.

NaijaAgroNet
gathered that the ACP-EU Technical Centre for
Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), in conjunction with the European Commission, the
European Economic and Social Committee, the African, Caribbean and Pacific
Group, Concord and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) are
the organisers of the 30th Brussels Development Briefings, which
holds today, 4 March 2013.

The briefing
under the theme, “Agricultural Resilience in the Face of Crises and Shocks” is
expected to attract some 200 ACP-EU policy makers, representatives of EU Member
States, civil society groups, researchers, development practitioners and media.

Confirming
this, CTA Director, Mr. Michael Hailu says that since its inception in
2007, the Brussels Development Briefing has been the premier event for sharing
and debating up-to-date information on critical issues relating to food
security and agricultural development in Africa, Caribbean and Pacific
countries.

“It has also
offered an excellent networking opportunity for development partners in
Brussels. The session on agricultural resilience marks the 30th
edition of this highly successful programme that CTA is proud to host on behalf
its partners,” he said.

As disclosed by him, Nigerian
Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, is the chief guest of this
edition of the briefing and would give a keynote address on conducive policies
in support of resilience.

Other speakers expected at the
briefing, he said, would address key challenges to strengthening resilience, cutting across the capacity of
agriculture to withstand or recover from stresses and shocks and bounce back to
the previous level of growth.

Hailu stressed that experts would present proven successes on building
resilience and decreasing the vulnerability of agricultural systems in the ACP
region.